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31. THE LONG WAY HOME
publish date:
2026-10-06 01:15:31
L.MISS PAUTHOR’S NOTE: Filler chapter, I know. But it’s very necessary. Also, I’m going through a severe case of writer’s block so bare with me🥲 If you're rooting for Selene and Alaric to figure their mess out, drop a #Vote# — it tells me people actually want the slow burn to keep burning 🔥 RANDOM QUESTION: What’s your go-to movie or tv show. I hardly watch movies so I can’t relate 😂 See you in the next chapter🤗
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Demoted to the Throne 34. A PRICE FOR PATIENCE
Alaric hadn’t slept properly since the conference trip, at first he convinced himself it was jet lag but even that die didn’t hold for long.He sat at his desk with the merger contract open in front of him, the same paragraph re-read for the fifth time without a single word of it landing, and let himself do the thing he'd been avoiding since the plane touched down — think about the bar. The weight of her, leaning in. The breath he'd taken right before his phone had ruined everything, sharp and sudden as a blade cutting a thread he hadn't meant to let get that long in the first place.He’d wanted to kiss her. That wasn’t a question anymore, wasn’t something he could file away like he did things he didn’t want to address. He’d wanted it with a clarity that unsettled him more than the wanting itself — and then his father’s call had come through, demanding an update on a trade negotiation that could have waited until morning, and he’d stood there in a hotel lobby listening to Silas’s voic
Demoted to the Throne 33. THE LOUDEST WHISPERS
Bianca had poured the wine herself, watching the thick redness flow freely into the cup — a gesture, meant to be perceived as kindness or mistaken for warmth — and set the glass down in front of Regina who sat across her. Only a few would realize that it was nowhere near warmth, the gesture that is. Just an act pulled by someone who needed something, indirectly."I just think it's interesting," Bianca said, curling into the corner of her sofa, phone angled so the photo caught the light. Selene and Alaric, a hand at her back, a city that wasn't Ravenwood. "That nobody's talking about this already. A whole business trip, and not a word. You'd think someone would find that worth mentioning.""People don't really gossip about assistants," Regina offered, carefully neutral, watching Bianca's face for whatever she was supposed to say next."No," Bianca agreed, thoughtful, like the idea was only now occurring to her. "Though I suppose someone could always help that along. Not me, obviously —
Demoted to the Throne 32. SLIP-UP
The smell of homemade food was obvious, even from the front door before Selene stepped in, which was how she knew, with a furious certainty, exactly what she was about to walk into.“Grandma!”Her grandmother turned from the stove with the guilty speed of someone caught mid-crime, wooden spoon still in hand, a dish towel slung over her shoulder. Looking not one but like someone who had spent the last several days hooked up to machines that beeped whenever her heart raced even a tad bit too fast. "You're home early."“You’re supposed to be resting, in bed. Preferably deep in sleep.”“I was discharged yesterday. Behaved myself, apparently.” Hattie turned back to the pot like that settled it, stirring with more effort than the motion should have required, her free hand braced flat against the counter every few seconds, her simple way of relaxing through the stress. “The doctor said I could go home as long as I took it easy.”“How is preparing a full considered ‘taking it easy’?”“It’s ju
Demoted to the Throne 31. THE LONG WAY HOME
Selene woke before her alarm again, except this time it wasn't Nyx keeping guard — it was her own heart, still running through the tail end of a memory that wasn't a dream at all. The bar. His hand at her temple. The half-second where she'd closed her eyes and waited.She lay there staring at the ceiling for a full minute, mortified, embarrassed. Foreign feelings battling for dominance in her mind.You didn't do anything wrong, Nyx offered, unusually gentle. You just wanted something. That's allowed.“Is being this embarrassed allowed also?” Selene muttered to the empty room, and got up before she could think about it any further.Breakfast was a small, private disaster. Alaric was already at the table when she came down, coffee in front of him, untouched, like he'd ordered it as a prop rather than something he intended to drink. He looked up when she sat, and for exactly one second their eyes caught — and then both of them found somewhere else to look, fast enough that it would have b
Demoted to the Throne 30. THE FEEL OF ALMOST
She had seen it too many times to know it wasn’t real. Not the forest, not the cold, wet slap of branches against her arms, mud sucking at feet that didn’t quite feel like her own, smoke thick enough to taste at the back of her throat.None of it was real, she knew that. But still, her screams tore through the air with a force, not in the dream and not in reality but she heard it, loud and clear.A figure called out ahead of her, ragged with running, a name recurrent on parched, trembling lips. Not her name. But very close, the way a word is said when it has been overused and familiarized.Her pace increased to catch up, but the voice went farther.Something howled behind her. Not an animal sound. Worse — deliberate, a note held too long to be anything but a warning. The clouds darkened like it knew of the tragedy occurring, gunshots fired behind her tired body.The woman ahead of her turned, chest heaving, eyes wide with a fear that had nothing to do with the running and everything to
Demoted to the Throne 29. EYES AROUND
Morning came with a stream of light flooding through the window. Selene woke up minutes before the alarm, which she decided was wither a sign of professionalism or just pure excitement from being in a new environment.She turned her face to the right side of the bed to avoid the harsh glare of the morning sun hitting her face.A soft groan slipped out of her mouth as she stretched her muscles on the bed, not ready to get up.Rise and shine, sleepy. Nyx’s loud voice resounded in her head. Did you forget today’s the first day of the conference.It was clear Nyx had been standing guard all night, refusing to let her oversleep and end up humiliating herself in a board room filled with executives who probably ironed all their clothes down to their socks.We are not humiliating anyone today, she thought, dragging herself upright against the absurdly soft pillows.She showered and pulled out the first cloth she saw in her suitcase which happened to be the black dress Chloe had picked out for
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